2016 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship, Rounds 7 & 8

The fourth meeting of the 2016 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship was affected by rain with a sodden track on Saturday and light drizzle on Sunday catching drivers out.

Round 8

A very slow start for pole man Patrick Fletcher dropped him to sixth before he’d even entered the first corner. That allowed championship rival James Bark to head the field, although he was hit by a late-braking George Williams. Bark held a big slide and continued to lead. Williams continued to have an eventful race with some slides and a spin at Coram before finishing fifth.

Bark held off a charging Phil Wright to win. The recovering Fletcher came third, just a couple of seconds behind the winner. Andrew Tibbs grabbed fourth with Williams and Nick Garner behind. Garner passed Scott Sharp on lap two, the latter fell down the field to 12th after being muscled off the circuit at Oggies.

Round 9

Fletcher and Bark were well clear of anybody else in race two after Wright retired with an engine issue. The pair ran nose-to-tail for the majority. With drizzle falling for the last couple of laps both ran wide thanks to slides but Fletcher held on – giving the two main championship rivals a win a piece in Norfolk.

A crazy battle occurred behind. Williams was the first victim as he went off the track at Hamilton into retirement. Don De Graaff duly moved from sixth to third with Scott Sharp chasing. Sharp lost out to Nick Passmore at Brundle on lap three with Passmore making a great move around the outside.

Sharp didn’t fancy staying fifth for long so reversed the positions at Montreal on the following lap. Both were quickly made aware of Tibbs – who had started 11th. By the end of the sixth lap he had passed them both. He challenged De Graaff into Riches but the ever greasier surface caught him out. The pair made contact with a pair of retirements being the unfortunate consequence.

Sharp came through to claim his first Clio podium with Trevor Gregory chasing him to the flag. Passmore had dropped back, which helped to gift Nick Garner and Martin Ward a top six finish. Simon Donoghue was also involved in the battle for third and claimed a career best finish of seventh.

The next outing for the 2016 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship is at Anglesey on 16th/17th July 2016.